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Ms Simmons, who studied at Cambridge University and lived in Nottingham before moving to Japan more than 40 years ago.

It was while working for the Foreign Press Center that she said she fell in love with the sport and became a commentator 25 years ago.

She is now an English-language commentator for NHK, which has been described as the equivalent of the BBC in Japan.

She told the Post: "I moved to Japan 44 years ago. I like the challenge of living in an Asian country.

"I was also interested in getting to know a lot more about sumo and other aspects of Japanese life and culture, much of which also went into articles for good magazines."

She said she loves the "good rapport" with the other commentators, who are known as 'play-by-play men'.

She added: "NHK set up the English-language commentaries 25 years ago to go out live at the same time as their very long-standing Japanese broadcast.

"At the beginning there were three play-by-play men (two together each day) who had experience of broadcasting games like baseball but their knowledge of basic sumo was newly acquired and pretty limited.

"They wanted the colour commentators like me who were hired because we were already knowledgeable about some aspect of sumo, and had gained our specialist knowledge in our own time and, mostly, at our own expense.

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“I arrived in September 1973, and was able to watch sumo live for the first time in January 1974.

"Whenever it was on in Tokyo I went every Saturday and Sunday. Four or five years later I started going to the Osaka and Nagoya tournaments too."

Between tournaments, Ms Simmons said she still tried to her knowledge of the sport, although she admits she "can't do this nearly as much as she used to".

"You should just see my piles of notes and clippings," she told the Post.

"It's the play-by-play man's job to know the recent scores and stuff like that, and also the winning techniques; but one man might have an extra impetus because of a new baby, that sort of thing."

While Ms Simmons maybe miles away from her old home in Nottingham, still holds some fond memories of her years here.

She said: "In the war, my father was away in the army and we had to move to what were sort of railway cottages at the back of the Victoria Station. I gather it's all gone now.

I went to Mundella (Grammar School), which was quite a trek. I was very happy that it was a mixed school with a superb choir.

"When I was in my teens Nottingham was a great place to be - the place for light entertainment. The Theatre Royal where they used to put on preliminary try outs of the big plays before they opened in London.

"I was mad on cricket too and on Saturdays went down to Trent Bridge as often as I could, with my home-made score card and notebook.

"When I came to Tokyo many years later I tackled sumo in much the same way."